April 9, 2026. At-Tawil. Text and most photographs by David Shulman.

Settlers make themselves at home on Palestinian land. At-Tawil.

Settlers are already there with their herd of goats, climbing up toward the Palestinian tents and huts when we arrive after pushing our car out of a rocky crack in the dirt road to At-Tawil. The morning shift activists are shooing the herd away over the stones and thick thorns; but the settlers, several of them young adolescent boys well trained in the arts of vicious harassment, are pushing the goats back uphill. A Palestinian herd deep in the valley below us is being dispersed by an older settler; the shepherdess is calling out desperate curses at him in her dialect, too colorful even for my Arabic. “Come, come, let me tell you, come here, you stupid thug, you have no reason to be here, you have no right to hurt us….” I don’t think I can paraphrase the obscenities. The settler, unperturbed, his face cruel, also blank, also contorted, continues his march through the herd until we manage to scare him off.

Continue reading

March 29, 2026     At-Tawil Text and Photographs: David Shulman

At-Tawil, March, 2026.

After several weeks of enforced rest—not an art I have perfected, or even practiced—I am back in Palestine. I yearned for this. Rain, cold winds, grey-to-black clouds, the occasional flicker of sunlight, mountains as green as Ireland, the sheep happily eating their fill, the access road slippery with mud, a sharp fragrance in the air that almost hints of spring—it’s one kind of happiness.

Continue reading

February 18, 2026.  Fasa’il and Ramun. Text by David Shulman, photos as credited.

Now all the days are hard.

A yard in Fasa’il. Photograph: David Shulman
Continue reading

January 21, 2026. Requiem for Ras al-‘Ain: Nakba 2. Text by David Shulman

Residents burning what they have to leave behind, Ras al-‘Ain, January 1, 2026. Photograph: Dood Evan.

It happened fast, much faster than expected. Once the more isolated neighborhoods of Salameh and Abu Talib and Abu Musa were gone, their people expelled, the rest of the villagers also began to dismantle their homes and burn whatever they couldn’t take with them.

Continue reading

January 1, 2026    Ras al-‘Ain. Text: David Shulman

I knew it was coming. I could feel it in my body, also in the air. For the last two or three weeks, settler harassment was constantly intensifying. You could see they were planning something big. They brought a settler called Micha Sudai down from the hill country to take charge of the ethnic cleansing of the Jordan Valley. Sudai has a reputation for being brutal and effective. Now he’s in the outpost just a few yards away from Ras al-‘Ain.

Salame’s compound, Ras al-Ain. Photograph: Margaret Olin, November, 2025
Continue reading

‘Abed’s Wedding, October 31, 2025. Texts: David Shulman and Margaret Olin

We sent this message, with no pictures, to our email list last month. Some of our correspondents thought that it should be posted on our blog, so we offer it here:

Continue reading

Mourning is Foreclosed: Umm al-Khair, November 1, 2025. Text and photographs: Margaret Olin

*NB: Please read to the end. Or skip the rest and go directly to the end.

Hanady’s sitting room is a shrine to her late husband, 31-year-old Awdah Hathaleen, killed in cold blood in July by a settler who was punished with three days of house arrest. Only a small diamond-shaped design of sequins to break the unrelenting darkness of her black draped clothing, Hanady tells me that everything is gone for her: everything left with Awdah: her home life, her future, her dreams, the list goes on.

Note: While I cannot photograph the faces of the Bedouin women of Umm al-Khair, I am encouraged to photograph the children.

Continue reading

Ras al-‘Ain, October 19, 26, 2025: Text: David Shulman; Photographs: Margaret Olin

Ras al-‘Ain, March, 2025

October 19, 2025

Where are the dogs of Ras al-‘Ain? There used to be lots of them. Together with the donkeys and the out-of-synch roosters, they performed the nocturnal symphony from midnight to dawn. They had a mission in life:  they could warn you if settlers were invading the Palestinian houses and sheepfolds. But now most of them are gone. We found out why. The settlers from the outpost threw cut-off heads of chickens, doctored with poison, into the village; the dogs died, and apparently some of the jackals and the wolf also died. One lonely, mournful dog still haunts the madafeh, where we sleep. He seems glad to have company.

Continue reading

June 27, 2025.    Mu‘arrajat and Ras al-‘Ain. Text: David Shulman.

Ras al-‘Ain, December, 2024. Photograph: Margaret Olin

Ras al-‘Ain has been partly vacated. Muhammad’s compound is totally empty: no sheep, no shepherds, empty sheepfolds. We are told they went north to the hill country, near Tubas, where the temperatures are somewhat cooler. Many of the shepherds in the Jordan Valley have made this seasonal migration in the summer months. But this time it’s different. After the ceaseless harassment and attacks, the massive theft of sheep, the lack of water, the shameless complicity of the soldiers and police in the settlers’ crimes—or for that matter, their joint initiatives—Muhammad’s sons may have embarked on the first stage of leaving their homes forever.

Continue reading

In Memoriam: Michal Peleg, 1959-2025. Text by David Shulman; photographs and additional text by Margaret Olin

Jerusalem, 2022. Photograph: Margaret Olin

Michal Peleg is now gone. Another enormous loss, just two weeks after Muhammad died.

Continue reading